


mewlings

by kozume



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Albius - Freeform, Cats, Comfort, Dorms, Fluff, Gryffindor, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Misunderstanding, Requited Love, Slytherin, Socks, Teasing, Transfiguration, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-18
Updated: 2014-08-18
Packaged: 2018-02-13 18:41:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2161014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kozume/pseuds/kozume
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p></p><blockquote>
  <p>not many people could say that they’d been presented with the opportunity to spend the night in albus potter’s sock drawer.</p>
</blockquote>
            </blockquote>





	mewlings

Scorpius was in a foul mood as he padded down the sixth floor corridor. About an hour earlier he’d been patrolling the fifth floor corridor when a muffled thump from inside one of the broom cupboards made him pause. He’d wrenched the door open and stumbled back as two people tumbled out onto the flagstone floor. The culprits were Jace Crawley, a 7th year Slytherin and an old dorm mate of Scorpius, and Pippa Chang, a 7th year Ravenclaw. Why she willing put herself in an enclosed space with Crawley was frankly beyond Scorpius – the boy had a nasty reputation, and had been removed from Scorpius’s dorm and placed in one of his own because the school seemed to deem him a safety hazard. Scorpius could do nothing but blink as the pair righted themselves, looking sheepish as they adjusted their clothing.

“Well then. Ten points from both your houses and detention on Monday. Now get back to your dorms.”

“Aw c’mon Scorpius, let us off. It’s nearly Christmas!” Crawley whined, face contorted into what Scorpius suspected Jace thought ‘pleading’ looked like. It made Scorpius’s skin scrawl.

“Nope. No exceptions. It wouldn’t be fair on the 3 other couples I’ve found hiding out this evening.”

Crawley’s eyes darkened, and Scorpius had to fight to not take a step back. Pippa squirmed next to him. “Let Pip off at least. She’s got a stellar record and this’ll tarnish it.”

“Look, Crawley, I can’t do that. You know I can’t do that. She gets what you get, and you get what every other person I’ve caught tonight gets. And that’s the end of it. Now get back to your rooms before I dock another ten points and slap on another detention,” he snapped, voice as cold as he could make it in the face of Crawley’s wrath, and, rather stupidly, he turned, heading back towards the stairs.

He heard Pippa shout and whirled just in time to see a spell hurtling towards him before he was sucked into a small tornado and left sprawled on the floor.

He heard Crawley curse and say something about a rat as he grabbed a protesting Pippa’s hand and pulled her past him. They looked big, for some reason, their retreating footsteps echoing around him as he tried to stand. _That’s funny_ , he thought as he struggled to his feet, _it feels like I’ve four legs and—_ his tail swished past him, and realization dawned. He was a cat. Crawley had transfigured him into a fucking cat. Brilliant.

He’d managed to master walking with four legs by the time he reached the sixth floor. Of course he then realized he couldn’t do his patrol in his current condition, and might as well return to the dungeons. But then there was the problem of not being able to speak the password.

He sat down outside one of the empty classrooms, deciding that he might as well sleep here. Curling in on himself, he sniffled a little, and when he tried to sigh he instead let out a pathetic mewling sound which, he guessed, was cat language for ‘I’m sad, someone rescue me’.

Which is exactly what happened.

“Hey buddy, what’re you doing here?” Scorpius’s ears pricked up, and he lifted his head, scouring the corridor for the source. When all he saw was the empty corridor he blinked, head dropping back onto his paws and mewling again. He heard a chuckle, and a rustle of fabric and suddenly a pair of hands were rushing towards him. He jumped up, skittering backwards across the stone and hissing. “Hey hey hey, calm down. I’m a friend, okay?”

Scorpius paused as the figure stepped into the moonlight shining through one of the windows, and blinked up at them. Albus Potter was stood there in all his glory, eyes crinkled and a smile on his lips. Fucking bollocking shitting hell. Albus Potter was stood there looking glorious and perfect as usual and his hands were sweeping down, encasing Scorpius’s tiny frame in absolute blissful warmth, and his fingers were scratching all the right places and _Merlin_ it felt absolutely wonderful. Scorpius was a purring ball of molten goo before he knew what’d hit him and Potter’s chuckles reverberated through him, doing strange things to Scorpius’s stomach.

“Well aren’t you affectionate?” The ministrations stopped, and Scorpius mewled, butting his head against Potters hand urging him to continue. “And you look like Scorp in cat form. I might just keep you for myself.”

Scorpius stiffened for a moment before Potters scratching’s urged him to relax again, but the questions were still rattling around in the back of his mind. Nobody called him Scorp, least of all Potter who Scorpius wouldn’t even consider an acquaintance, let alone a friend… so why would he want to keep a cat that looked like him to himself?

“Your eyes are exactly the same. It’s kind of weird, you know,” Potter mused as he took the stairs three at a time. “Anyway, you’ll have to sleep in my room until I can find your owner tomorrow, okay?”

Scorpius mewled, partially out of fear and partially out of glee. Fear because he was entering the proverbial lion’s den, and he had no idea just when this spell would wear off, and glee because he was going to, essentially, spend the night with Potter. The boy he’d been wanking over since he hit puberty and realized that cock really did it for him. It didn’t start off with Potter playing the starring role, of course. No. All his favourite fantasies had somehow morphed into him. Seeing Potters face looming above him with sweat beading on his brow and breath coming in sharp gasps, or green eyes staring up at him from somewhere around his crotch, batting his thick black eyelashes instead of the standard male models.

He should not be thinking arousing thoughts in cat form whilst being carried into the Gryffindor common room. No he should not.

And all too soon Potter was pushing open a dormitory door and sliding in, closing it quickly behind him. Only one bed was vacant, and it was surprisingly tidy. Scorpius had always pegged him as a slob.

“Oi, Al, where you been?” Frankie Longbottom stuck his head out of one of the beds. “You haven’t been trailing Malfoy again have you?”

“Fuck off, Frankie,” Albus scowled as he shot Frankie the finger.

That piqued Scorpius’s interest as he wriggled out of Potters grasp, trotting over to his bed and jumping up, pawing at the duvet and mewling again.

“You seriously need to get over him, Al. It’s not healthy.” Another head popped out, Wesley Thomas this time. “I mean you’ve been pining after him for what, seven years now?”

“Yeah. You’ve been obsessed with him since you could first get it up.” Xavier Wood emerged from the bathroom.

“Fuck off the lot of you,” Albus was changing, tugging his shirt up and off and rifling through the bottom draw of his dresser. “What’s it to all of you anyway?” he asked as he came up with a tattered Harpies practice shirt.

“Mate, we’ve watched you act like a lovesick puppy for seven years and this is the last real chance you have to tell him how you feel. Either man up and spit it out or find someone else to moon over.”

“Yeah, Al. You’ve hardly even spoken to him. I don’t really get how this obsession even started or how you’re fuelling it, to be honest. All you do is stare at him or trail around after him when he’s doing his prefect rounds. It’s pathetic.”

All of them nodded, muttering in agreement, and Scorpius could only stare wide eyed at Potter, who whirled around so fast that it made Scorpius jump and bury himself in the comforter.

“Shut the fuck up all of you. If you really gave a shit you’d of spoken up before now. And no, Xavier, pining after your fucking roommate and not manning up and admitting it is pathetic. Deal with your own issues first before dishing out advice to other people, twat.” Al stomped over to the bed, drawing the curtains behind him and casting a load of privacy spells so quickly Scorpius suspected it was a common thing.

Albus sat staring at the curtains, chest rising and falling harshly. His previously flushed face was now pale, and he was nibbling on his lower lip. And all Scorpius could do was stare at him in shock. Albus Potter liked him back, and apparently he’d been dealing with his feelings in exactly the same way Scorpius had. By burying them and hiding behind friends and doing anything but dealing with them head on.

He took a few shaky steps forward and butted his head against Potters hand. The boy jumped, looking down in shock, before his face softened and he turned to sit properly on the bed, crossing his legs and pulling Scorpius onto his lap.

“They don’t get it,” Albus’s voice was thick, and Scorpius felt a few drops fall onto his fur. He was crying, and Scorpius’s chest ached. “They don’t get that you can fall in love with someone from a distance. And they don’t understand how fucking terrifying that is.”

Scorpius blinked up at the boy, eyes wide and imploring, sympathetic. It didn’t even register immediately that he’d said he was in love with him, Albus just sounded so sad and Scorpius hated it.

“It’s not like I don’t know him. I know him perfectly well. I know all that stupid trivial shit like how he hates pulpy orange juice and has his toast lightly done at breakfast, and how his favourite subject is Arithmancy but he tells everyone that it’s Charms because it sounds cooler. And that he hates being a seeker and would much rather be a chaser but he doesn’t want to disappoint his father, and that he sends his grandmother sugar quills after every Honeydukes trip,” Scorpius blinked up at Albus, and his face had softened as he’d been talking, but it hardened again, “I know all of them through years of watching him and overhearing other people talk about him and it’s not the same. Seven years of observing can’t compare to seven years of actually getting to know someone by talking to them and figuring it all out the hard way. And it sucks. I’m too much of a coward to go up and talk to him now, and I don’t want to graduate without ever having spoken a word to him. I love him and I’ve never even had a conversation with him, how pathetic is that, cat?” He laughed a little to himself, wiping at his face and shifting Scorpius off of his lap. He grabbed his wand, transfiguring the trousers he was wearing into pyjama trousers.

“Well, cat, you can sleep in my sock drawer,” he jabbed his wand, and a draw flew out of his trunk, settling itself neatly at the foot of the bed, “or on the duvet, what’ll it be?”

Scorpius mewled desperately, scrabbling back up to the boy and rubbing his head frantically against his hand. He wanted to be close to him more than anything. Now he knew that his feelings were reciprocated he had to have him. He wanted desperately to be human again so he could kiss him and never let him go.

“Okay,” Albus chuckled, scratching Scorpius behind the ears, “with me it is.”

He extinguished the light and shimmied down under the covers, getting comfy before making a space for Scorpius’s tiny body. “Good night, cat. Thank you for listening.”

Scorpius settled down, pawing at the fabric for a moment before closing his eyes, relishing in the warmth of Albus’s body next to his, and letting himself drift off.

 

Sometime later Scorpius’s eyes snapped open. A tingle of magic was working its way up his spine making his skin crawl. He rolled off of the bed, landing on all fours, before he felt the magic burst out of him. He stood, glancing around the room to check he hadn’t woken anybody, and quickly and quietly let himself out of the room. He all but sprinted out of the common room, ignoring the Fat Lady’s protests as he hurried down the stairs, taking the well-known route back to the dungeons. His own common room was deserted, the crackling fire the only source of life in the place. When he was safely in his own bed, he cast a tempus. Four am. He had three hours he could see Albus and tell him everything. He settled down, grinning at the canopy above him. The two and a half hours of sleep that followed were the best that Scorpius had ever had.

 

When he walked into the Great Hall that morning, he struggled to keep the smile off of his face as he scanned the room for Albus. He spotted him sitting alone at the end of the Gryffindor table, moodily stabbing at his scrambled eggs. His friends sat a few seats down from him, shooting him glances and looking incredibly guilty. Good.

Scorpius steeled himself and set off towards him, ignoring the mutters and whispers from the other tables. By the time he was stood in front of Albus the entire hall was silent, wondering where exactly this was going. The pair had never really spoken, but they weren’t oblivious to their father’s reputations. The school had been openly disappointed when they hadn’t picked up where their parents had left off, and Scorpius wondered if some of them hoped that now, days before graduation, was the moment that that would happen.

Albus lifted his head at the silence, glancing around him before he finally noticed Scorpius. His eyes trailed up his body before finally settling on his face.

“Can I help you?” His voice wavered slightly and Scorpius couldn’t help but grin.

“I was wondering if we could talk. Somewhere a little more private, if you don’t mind.” He glanced around the hall, eyes cold, and everyone bar their friends turned away, talking quietly amongst themselves.

“No! No of course not! Just let me grab my things.” Albus scrambled to his feet, hoisting his bag onto his shoulder and following Scorpius out of the hall. His eagerness was rather adorable, and Scorpius couldn’t stop grinning as he led them to an alcove.

“So,” Albus said, cheeks pink, “what’s up?”

Scorpius stared at his hands, stark white against the black school trousers.

“I know,” he said, looking at Albus’s slowly paling face.

“Know what?”

“That you’re in love with me.”

Albus’s face was as white as a sheet as he stood. “I’m sorry. I’m so so sorry. I’ll just go.”

“No, Albus wait-”

“No I can’t I have to get to lesson and-”

“Just listen to me!”

“So you can tell me that you’re sorry but you don’t like guys? So you can tell me that you’ll keep it just between us? That nobody else has to know? That you appreciate the sentiment but-”

Scorpius cut him off by cupping his cheeks and pressing their lips together, and he stayed there until Albus’s hands gripped onto Scorpius’s forearms, until he tilted his head slightly and kissed back. Scorpius pulled away, lips tingling and stretched into a grin.

“So I can tell you I’m in love with you too.”

Wide green eyes searched his, desperate and hopeful. “But-”

“I was the cat you found. Jase Crawley transfigured me after I found him and Pippa Chang on the fifth floor. I was absolutely petrified at first, and then you had your argument with your friends and, well,” Scorpius shrugged, “who know we were both as stubborn and in denial as each other?”

“We need to send a thank you card to Jase Crawley,” Albus grinned, twining their fingers together.

“Yeah, we really do.”

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr: deityirl


End file.
